Konoha Gakuen Den Rock Lee's Arrival
by Coconuttii
Summary: Alternate Universe, inspired by "Konoha Gakuen Den". Rock Lee arrives for a new term at Konoha Academy, reflecting on what brought him there.


Sandal-clad feet skittering across the gravel which served as a modest path through the vast parkland which divided the city and its outland 'Konoha Academy', as a dark-haired youth jogged with peculiar urgency towards his destination. His feelings were mixed with hot-blooded enthusiasm, impulse, and memory, and experiencing that familiar hush of the Konoha grounds, the zealous youth could not help but reflect on what had brought him to this place so long ago…

He had never been an academic. Mathematics, Applied Chemistry, Sociology, Literature had been countered with vain, helpless scrawling, and frustrated silences as he was posed even the simplest of questions …His short attention span may have had a part to play in that. Though, it wasn't as if he hadn't tried. Rather, he had tried so badly to succeed that swollen hoary shadows had embedded themselves beneath his lively dark eyes, had grown weak to the point of collapse from food-deprival in three-day study sessions as punishment for his inabilities. Yet the outcome had always remained the same; as though it was written in the tapestries of fate that he would never make it in every spiel of the academic spectrum. He was naturally forgetful, and words, and channelling thought through them was sometimes… difficult.

He was the Academy of Konoha's hot-blooded dropout. And that cruel truth had frustrated him, had driven his morale below the parapet… had hurt. To be an excellent footballer, and a scholar – his grandparents had always wanted that; had wanted more for him than to lose his able legs to the inevitability of trench-foot that was inherent from working in the villages rice-fields. He had promised, his honest, lightly-tanned face beaming, that he would become an excellent scholar, and he had always believed that he could fulfil that promise someday. Everybody did, right? It was just a little set-back, starting to read and write a few years after everybody else? The little set-back, however, had gotten too wild, and had grown too big, feeding from the ruthless rebuke and reprisal of classmates and exhausted teachers. It was true that he was an optimist beyond reality, but… there was a point where everything just seemed hopeless. Like nothing could help, and he would always be a drop-out, and nothing in the world could change that. He recalled breaking down on the third (or was it the second?) week of his first semester at the prestigious Konoha Academy, huddling behind the supply sheds which sat in one of the many isolated corners of the sports grounds, breath hitching as he manfully tried to stifle his sobs. It wasn't manly to be like that; but the tears had come swiftly and profuse, finally released after being stored like bad secrets behind a veil of cheerfulness for so many months of unremitting disappointment. They had finished as soon as they had began, however. It was always that way for him. He rarely cried for himself, yet when he did, they were hot, bitter, and quick to end.

Having composed himself, he had sought to continue his enrichment practice: 2,000 skips, 3,500 arm thrusts, and 200 laps of the sports grounds. Then pound some butt in soccer practice. That was where he met Gai-sensei, and then…

Everything got better.

Lee smiled tenderly to himself, his cheeks glowing as the emotions of his memory warmed them, and he adjusted the two outsized backpacks upon his shoulders as he picked up his pace. As he reached the huge front steps of Konoha Academy, the raven-haired youth stared up with his wide dark eyes from beneath his emerald-green cap into the face of the familiar building, before beaming as he scaled the steps, and stopped before the dorm board plastered beside the entrance window.

Blinking as he scrolled the list of names with his eyes, Lee continued to jog on the spot, his arms flailing to double his exertion: seeming like a green tracksuit-clad high-sugar-crazed lunatic to anyone who happened to pass by.

"…'Akimichi Chouji'!" Rock Lee exploded at last, smiling happily at the name beside his own, "I have a dorm-partner this year!" About turning abruptly, the weight on his back almost sending him over the ledge of the stairwell, the youth sprinted hastily down the steps, and rounded the corner of the building in search of his new dorm, and the friend that would, without doubt, come with it.

***

Character description: Rock Lee is an orphan who, upon losing his grandparents to natural causes, has been relocated to the city in which is connected loosely to the Konoha Academy. He has been submitted into the academy with a scholarship which has been entreated to him by governmental protocol as a program designed to help underachievers, though due to his unbalanced ability in his subjects, has been held back a year. With an unrivalled urge to succeed, and with the passionate support of Gai-sensei, Lee has the potential to become an excellent scholar through hard work, and his outstanding sports skills (in all areas), History and Biology. He is a good student, despite his flaws in many subjects, is not intentionally rude, yet can be, and is not afraid to state his feelings with honesty and a warm smile. His commitment to something can sometimes be overwhelming, and his dedication to his friends is no exception. Once he has a task in mind it is difficult to change.


End file.
